Conkers

The British Bike magazine "R!DE" has a two page spread on Graham Halsall in the March edition which came out last week. They used one of my Action photos and a great pic by their staffer which must have been taken in Graham's garden! The real credit however must go to Tony Hoare, their deputy Editor, who interviewed Graham and is a big Ice Racing fan. Tony compiled some of Speedway Star's coverage of the Ice when he worked there, also, when he and Gary Pinchin (another ex-Pinegen man) worked in the sports department at MCN, they regularly did Ice coverage there.

Got a text from Roger Newton about Flims, he scored a second in his first two rides, and a third place in his third ride. He was a faller in his fourth ride and had to withdraw as he was taken to Hospital. He is just badly bruised but his bike snapped the front forks which has annoyed him somewhat! He should be home in a ay or so, so I'll have a good chat with him then. Good to see he was scoring as well as Mark until the fall Speedway.org has the actual race programme which looks like variation on the original GP format (similar to the RTB format). Here is a link: Sanok Cup race format

From what Roger Newton has told me in the past, the Alpenarena isn't to everyones taste. Two years ago, the top riders pulled out as they felt that the track wasn't safe, but some of the lesser lights look on it as another meeting. I know Roger and Graham both like the track, and judging by Mark's performance he must like it too. Roger did say that last time he rode there was a "bumpy" bit (I think that's how he described it) going into one of the turns which a few other riders complained about. To the best of my knowledge Bauer hasn't ridden there for three years, so maybe he decided against it. EDIT: Golden Spike Qualifying Round results: 1 Jan Klatovsky CZ 6 2 Martin Posch A 5 3 St. Pletschacher D 4 4 Josef Kreuzberger A 4 5 Thomas Cavigelli CH 3 6 Mark Uzzel GB 2 7 Peter Jansson S 0 8 Dennis van de Tang NL 0

Looks like they had a number of changes in the line up, with No Bauer, and one or two changes in the line up that saw Dennis Van de Tang and Mark (albeit in the qualifiers) getting another ride. . Oh well, another failure in the predictions eh, Mate?

You'll be pleased to know Mrs U, that young Mark not only scored 9, but finished a creditable 7th place, with Roger Newton finishing 11th with 5. Sadly Rob failed to score. I don't have the heat details so I can't comment, but it bodes well for next weekend in the European Championship. Pass on my congrats. to him. Swiss Championship 2008 / Alpenarena Cup, 18.01. 1. Lukas Rösti (CH) 11 +3 2. Mario Schwaiger (A) 13 +2 3. Josef Kreuzberger (A) 12 +1 4. Simon Gartmann (CH) 14 +0 5. Thomas Cavigelli (CH) 11 6. Philippe Weiss (CH) 10 7. Mark Uzzell GB) 9 8. Peter Jansson (S) 9 9. Christof Kirchner (D) 7 10. Dirk Fricke (CH) 7 11. Roger Newton (GB) 5 12. Piotr Hejnowski (Pol) 4 13. Zdzislaw Zerdzinski (Pol) 4 14. Dennis van de Tang (NL) 2 15. Roland Winkler (CH) 2 16. Robert Irving (GB) 0 17. Heinz Göldi (CH) 0 Swiss Championship 1. Simon Gartmann 2. Lukas Rösti 3. Thomas Cavigelli Interesting that Simon G top scored 14 then failed to win the Race to win the Alpenarena Cup, yet won the Swiss Championship. EDIT: So tonights Line Up now looks like this: Golden Spike Qualification 1. Grzegorz Knapp Pol 2. Jan Klatovsky CzR 3. Martin Posch CH 4. Thomas Cavigelli CH 5. Mario Schwaiger (A) 6. Phillipe Weiss CH 7. Martin Leitner A 8. Stefan Pletschacher D Golden Spike - 19.1.2008 1. Johnny Tuinstra NL 2. Max Niedermaier D 3. 1st in Qualification ? 4. Andreas Roth D 5. Harald Simon A 6. Johann Bruckner A 7. Simon Gartmann CH 8. Lukas Rösti CH 9. Sven Holstein NL 10. René Stellingwerf NL 11. Günther Bauer D 12. Dmitri Tschatschin D 13. 2nd in Qualification 14. Antonin Klatovsky CzR 15. 3rd in Qualification 16. 4th in Qualification Those riders in bold indicate the changes

If you can get Xleague TV (the Sky channel is 279) then they have some Ice Racing footage tomorrow. I've had a look on the website but their TV schedule is for November 2007, however the Sky EPG shows it as being on at 2pm Saturday. Don't know if you can get this channel outside the UK, but Ice Racing apart it appears to be male teenagers playing games in competitions with commentators that make Nigel Pearson sound positively reserved. EDIT: This is the American ICE series promoted by Gary Densmore (?) , with Flat Trackers, Quads and Bar Stool racing. No signs of any European Ice Racing or the Telford Style Speedway on Ice which the Brits dominated for several years.

Starting Line ups for Flims: Swiss Open Championship - 18/1/2008: 1. Roger Newton GB 2. Robert Irving GB 3. Roland Winkler CH 4. Simon Gartmann CH 5. Dirk Fricke CH 6. Philip Weiss CH 7. Mario Schwaiger A 8. Josef Kreuzberger A 9. Peter Jansson S 10. Thomas Cavigelli CH 11. Heinz Göldi CH 12. Christof Kirchner D 13. Zdzislaw Zerdzinski Pol 14. Lukas Rösti CH 15. Mark Uzzell GB 16. Piotr Hejnowski Pol 17. Dennis van der Tang NL Golden Spike Qualification 1. Grzegorz Knapp Pol 2. Jan Klatovsky CzR 3. Martin Posch CH 4. 3rd in Swiss Championship CH 5. Best Non-Swiss Rider 6. 4th in Swiss Championship 7. Martin Leitner A 8. Stefan Pletschacher D Golden Spike - 19.1.2008 1. Johnny Tuinstra NL 2. Max Niedermaier D 3. 1st in Qualification ? 4. Andreas Roth D 5. Harald Simon A 6. Johann Bruckner A 7. 1st In Swiss Championship CH 8. 2nd In Swiss Championsjip CH 9. Sven Holstein NL 10. René Stellingwerf NL 11. Günther Bauer D 12. Dmitri Tschatschin D 13. 2nd in Qualification 14. Antonin Klatovsky CzR 15. 3rd in Qualification 16. 4th in Qualification Bearing in mind there are only 5 Swiss riders in the Swiss Championship, at least four of them will get a ride on Friday and Saturday. Good Luck to Roger, Rob and Mark. Roger spoke to me yesterday and he sets off for Flims on Tuesday to meet Rob and on to Switzerland. This is the only round of the Golden Spike in 2008, after Erfurt is off, and the St. Johann and Steingaden clubs decided against running it, prefering to run their own meetings. Also if you are going to Assen, this is the current ticket situation: FRIDAY 7th MARCH 2008 - INTERNATIONAL RACE • Stands (all places) € 10,-- • Standing place à € 5,-- • Standing place children under 12 à € 2,-- SATURDAY 8th MARCH 2008 - WC FINAL • Grandstand A à € 27,-- Sold out • Stand B (2nd bend)à € 27,-- Sold out • Standing place à € 19,-- • Standing place children under 12 à € 5,-- SUNDAY 9th MARCH 2008 - WC FINAL • Grandstand A à € 27,-- Sold out • Stand B (2nd bend) à € 27,-- • Standing place à € 19,-- • Standing place children under 12 à € 5,--

I think that counts as quite an achievement considering that there were so many more experienced riders there. Have you spoken to Aakko yet? Hoping that his reserve spot will be as productive as last year?

So it looks like Johnny will be the Wild Card for Assen then. Interesting that both the riders who do Speedway and Ice Racing (Danil Ivanov/Grigory Laguta) have both gone through. I told you last week that we are rubbish at this predictions lark, but would you listen?

Seeing how well we all did last week! 1. Franky Zorn 2. Danil Ivanov 3. Pavel Tschajka 4. Harald Simon 5. Grigory Laguta 6. Johnny Tuinstra Outside chance for Sven Holstein And good luck to Graham Halsall too!

So Antti Aakko goes into the Championship as reserve. Last year he never started in that position after Posa wasn't allowed to start in Russia. He stayed in all six rounds. Could he be that lucky again? Posa celebrates his 60th birthday on Sunday 9th March. In Assen! Are there live results from Saalfelden anywhere?

You are right, indeed So the reserves will come from Stockholm and Saalfelden too? Also Franky Zorn may well drop his first points of the season on Sunday as he has some Russians to contend with. Are you spannering or going as a spectator?

For those of you venturing to Assen for the Ice Racing there they have the schedule for the weekend on their website: TIME SCHEDULE 2008 Thursday 6 March 19.00 hrs Practice Roelof Thijs Cup Friday 7 March 09.00 hrs Practice WC 19.00 hrs Races Roelof Thijs Cup Saturday 8 March 18.35 hrs Parade 19.00 hrs 24 heats WC Sunday 9 March 13.35 hrs Parade 14.00 hrs 24 heats WC So apart from Dutch Grass Track, Joni and myself, who else is planning to be there in 8 weeks? AND apart from iris123 Wolfslayer & friends and me again, is anyone going to Berlin?

Got to agree with you there, some excellent stuff. Even Russians can't appear to get Krasnikov to look at Cameras The action stuff is very good. Will we see you in Assen or Berlin then, weter?

I think we should give up this predictions lark Anyway, just watched the coverage on TV-RU and it was a great meeting. Occasionally the camera work was a bit iffy but otherwise a great bit of TV. Just hope the Saransk TV station show the meeting there in February.

Talking of Saalfelden, there are some pictures of the track prep on the Assen site. Looks like they will have lots of Ice there next weekend! Good prep for Frankie too. Anyone know why Posa did so badly?

Looks like Krasnikov is still the man to beat although Kononov and Tschajka are still in with a shout, should be interesting tomorrow. Tuned into TV-RB at 4.30 and sat through the news which carried a short report on the meeting. It was loads of crowd shots and loads of Talking Heads who all appeared to support Krasnikov, with snatches of racing. Oh well!

I tried this site in Safari on my Mac and on Firefox on the PC, but it will only work on IE, so looks like I'll have to sit in front of the PC . However, Ufa is 5 hours ahead of GMT so I need to be back from the Bike show by 2.30pm to watch! Is there any sign of it on tomorrows listings? The translation sites appear to have difficulty with this site on most of the pages (including the one with the listings!)

Canada: Welland Speedway, Ontario Last time I was in Canada, I missed the final meeting of the season by a week! Paris Speedway, Ontario There is another Canadian Track called Trois Rivieres or something like that, but the CSRA website doesn't list it or it's location

Here are a couple of NY State tracks: Champion Speedway, Owego Action Park East, Greene Batavia Speedway, Batavia (Not very good - won't zoom in on the track) EDIT: Try THIS LINK for Batavia There is another track at Brewerton NY, called Empire Speedway, but it only opened in 2007 so the Google Maps aren't very good for that. If you put Empire speedway into Google Maps it shows the Car track which is quite close. EDIT: Try This Link for Brewerton

Russian Individual Championship FINAL DRAW – Ufa January 5th/6th 2008 1. Sergei Baltachev (Ufa) 2. Junir Baseev (Saransk) 3. Maxim Zakharov (Saransk) 4. Eduard Krysov (Shadrinsk) 5. Danil Ivanov (Togliatti) 6. Sergei Kazakov (Kumertau) 7. Maxim Baraboshkin (Novosibirsk) 8. Dmitri Khomitsevich (Togliatti) 9. Igor Kononov (Sterlitamak) 10. Stanislav Arkhipov (Sterlitamak) 11. Ilya Drozdov (Ufa) 12. Pavel Tschajka (Blagoveschensk) 13. Nikolai Krasnikov (Ufa) 14. Dmitri Bulankin (Ufa) 15. Ivan Ivanov (Togliatti) 16. Vitali Khomitsevich (Togliatti) Spare: 17. Roman Akimenko (Shadrinsk) 18. Vladimir Loumpov (Byslobodskov(sp?)) (from the Russian Speedway Forum.) So any predivctions for the top 3? I'll go Krasnikov, Tschajka, Dmitri Khomitsevich

It wasn't so much the working out, it was compiling the results and realising that I'd cocked it up a bit. :oops: Still it's right now. With Tschajka and Kononov, the Russians are unearthing more talent than ever. And what about young Danil Ivanov? Dropped one point in his final ride on the Sunday. 35 points of his teams total is a good score by anyone. Krasnikov may be the old hand come February

Russian Junior Team Championship Day 2, Sterlitamak. Looks like the Kaustic side had a bit of competition today, with Ufa tying on points. League Points scored in Brackets. Sterlitamak 26 (8) + 25 (8) = 51 (16) Vladimir Chapalo 11 + (1,1,2,2,1,0) 7 =18 Peter Nuykhin ns + ns Igor Kononov 15 + (3,3,3,3,3,3) 18+3 = 33 Togliatti 24 (6) + 24(5) = 48 (11) Mikhail Zelepukin 0 + (-,0,-,-,2,-) 2 = 2 Sergei Karachintsev 6 + (1,-,2,2,-,0) 5 = 11 Danil Ivanov 18 + (3,3,3,3,3,2) 17 = 35 Ufa 21 (5) + 25 (6) = 48 (11) Nikolai Ryabokon 11 + (0,2,2,2,2,2) 10 = 21 Nikita Alekseyev ns +ns Sergei Baltachev 10 + (2,3,3,3,3,1) 15+2 = 25 Novosibirisk 16 (4) + 17 (4) = 33 (8) Aleksandr Kochetov 11 + (3,2,1,1,3,3) 13= 24 Maxim Korchemakha 5 + (2,0,-,-,1,1) 4 = 9 Saransk 15 (3) + 12 (2) = 27 (5) Maxim Lushnikov 6 + (1,1,2,-,-,1) 5 = 11 Andrei Gavrilkin 2 + (-,-,0,0,1,3) 4 = 6 Dmitri Karpukhin 7 + (0,2,1,0) 3 = 10 Shadrinsk 13 (2) + 13 (3) = 26 (5) Sergei Koltakov 12 + (3,2,1,1,2,2) 11 = 25 Maxim Koltakov 0 + DNR = 0 Aleksandr Rodin DNR+ (-,-,0,0,-0) 0 =0 Daniel Belonogov 1 + (2,-,-,0,0,-) = 2 Lukhovitsy 10 (1) + 10 (1) = 20 (2) Mikhail Dushamov 7 + (0,1,1,1,1,2) 6 = 13 Ivan Sinichkin 3 + (1,0,3,0,0,0) 4 = 7 EDIT: Copied the same rider into two different teams - ammended! From www.russpeedway.ru

Hi Mark, thanks for that. Most useful. Good luck in Flims and Sanok. Hope to see you at some point this season!

Results Santa Cup Bollnäs 28 December Franky wins! 1 Franz Zorn 12 p (25 ) 2 Antti Aakko 12 p (22) 3 Stefan Svensson 11 p (20) 4 Per Olov Serenius 12 p (18) 5 Harald Simon (16) 6 Markus Skabraut 8 p (15) 7 Johnny Tuinstra 9 p (14) 8 Tommy Flyktman 8 p (13) 9 Jan Klatovsky 7 p (12) 10 P-A Lindström 7 p (11) 11 Stefan Hedström 5 p (10) 12 Hans Olov Olsén 4 p (9) 13 Peter Koij 3 p (8) 14 Tobias Åström 3 p (7) 15 Johan Lundkvist 3 p (6) 16 Stefan Pletschacher 2 p (5) 17 Sven Holstein 2 p (4) 18 Jonas Lindholm 1 p (3) 19 Jonas Norell 1 p (2) 20 Joakim Söderström S 1 p (1) Totals Santa Cup 2007 1 Franz Zorn 25+25=50p 2 Antti Aakko 22+22=44 3 Harald Simon 20+16=36 4 Posa Serenius 14+18=32 5 Markus Skabraut 16+15=31 6 Stefan Svensson 10+20=30 7 P-A Lindström 18+11=29 8 Johnny Tuinstra 15+14=29 9 Tommy Flyktman 11+13=24 10 Peter Koij 13+8=21 11 Jan Klatovsky 8+12=20 12 Sven Holstein 12+4=16 13 Hans Olov Olsén 2+9=11 14 Stefan Hedström -+10=10 15 Joakim Söderström 9+1=10 16 Stefan Pletschacher 5+5=10 17 Robert Gjersvold 7+-=7 17 Tobias Åström -+7=7 19 Johan Lundkvist 1+6=7 20 Jo Saetre 6+-=6 21 Lars Ringbert 4+-=4 22 Heinz Göldi 3+-=3 22 Jonas Lindholm -+3=3 24 Jonas Norell -+2=2 results from Isracing.net Heat details HERE (or at least they will be there shortly) Good result for Franky and Antti yet again, and Posa and Stefan still having a good start.